While in New York promoting their new album Perch Patchwork Maps & Atlases performed an impromptu acoustic version of “Solid Ground” for Wild Honey Pie.

Yesterday North Coast Music Festival announced their 2010 line-up. The event will take place from September 3rd to September 5th at Union Park, and will be feature some big names like Chemical Brothers, Moby, De La Soul, Cold War KidsNas & Damian Marley, and more. This festival will also feature talented Chicago bands like Umphrey’s McGee, Future Rock, Van Ghost, Loyal Divide, and others.

Limited 3-day passes for just $65 will be available through June 13th.

The Fold are back again with another hilarious parody song and video. This time they are taking on both Weezer and the dangers of Twitter addiction.

The Fold will be performing on June 12th at Riverfest in St. Charles and on June 13th at Tinley Park’s Fiesta.

Abraham Levitan (Baby Teeth) and Brian Costello (Johnny & the Limelites, novelist) have come together to change the face of the live game show. On June 11th at The Hideout "Shame That Tune" will premier. Here is how it will work, “On “Shame That Tune,” there are three contestants. Each will first spin a "Wheel of Fortune"-style wheel, divided into musical sub-genres (e.g., “Bob Dylan’s Christian Phase,” “Keith Richards solo,” “Led Zeppelin III”). The contestant then tells an embarrassing anecdote, no more than three minutes in length (timed by a giant LED clock), from their high-school or junior-high diary. Costello then interviews the contestant for exactly five minutes while Levitan composes, on the spot, a song about the embarrassing anecdote, in the style of the musical sub-genre that came up on the wheel. The winner is determined by applause based on audience response to his/her story and the resulting song; he/she will be rewarded with generous gifts from local businesses.”

For the first performance of “Shame That Tune,” the contestants will include local garage-rock wunderkind Miss Alex White, as well as Elisse La Roche, drummer for husband-and-wife musical duo Love of Everything. The third contestant will be chosen live from the audience. The show is only $5 so don’t miss out.

Picture Books just announced that they are parting ways, but remaining friends. The band does have a few songs recorded and some they are still finalizing so there may be one more release from the band. The band members have several other projects that they will be focusing on. Nicholas Papaleo and Nicholas Kelley have crafted an epic new band called Brontosaurus and will be playing shows as well as releasing an album later this summer while Josh Miller is teaming back up with the brothers Lanthrum (of Kid, You’ll Move Mountains) as Good Light Bad Light. As always, Kelly Johnson will continue to melt faces with his band, Geronimo!, who just last month released their debut LP "Fuzzy Dreams".

Last week The Smith Westerns and Fat Possum announced their new partnership. The band is currently recording their Fat Possum debut that the label plans to release late this summer. The band will also be touring the UK, Netherlands, Sweden and so on this month.

Their next hometown show will be on July 17th as part of Pitchfork Music Festival.

Recently Apteka appeared on Columbia College’s live music program, Chicago Live. They performed “Aragon Sound” which appears on their latest ep Traitors. They will be performing on June 10th with Panda Riot and Sissy Mena at Subterranean.

Sometimes I feel like the word prolific is over used, but when it is applied to the efforts and output of Tom Schraeder it seems fitting. His latest album, Once Lace, Now Cotton is available through Township Records. The album was compiled by fans, family and friends from the three records Schraeder recorded and casually (read: unofficially) released over the past year and a half: The Death of St. Thomas, Dear Brooklyn, I’m Sorry… and …bad things aren’t necessarily not beautiful. This is also the first of three albums he will be releasing this year. Musically, this album keeps a mystical balance between simplicity and complexity. You find Tom drifting through gentle acoustic guitar based melodies and delivering subtle and occasionally cryptic lyrics and you absolutely find yourself wanting more after these brisk nine tracks are over. The album starts off with a whistle and the distance yet soft vocals of Schraeder floating over guitar and white recording noise on the track “To You, My Friend…”. Electronics begin to appear at the end of the track and lead into “When Escanaba Rests” and the musical puzzle begins. This album is clearly about the voice, and the mood stays sparse for most of the album, but there are also a few moments of sonic explorations. The most “radio-ready” pop tune on the album is “Carry On” and it works as a big ending a solid album. Once Lace, Now Cotton is an intimate collection that sets the stage for a big year from Tom Schraeder.

Tom Schraeder will be celebrating the release of this album on June 5th at Lincoln Hall with Richard Edwards of Margot and The Nuclear So and So’s, Danny Malone, & PGDM DJ’s.

Pugs Atomz is back and this time he is teaming with local producer Grant Parks for an album called Kinda Like A Rapper. This is the first release from this duo, but you can tell there is a ton of chemistry between these two. The album drops today, but yesterday Pugs and Grant appeared on the Hip Hop Project on WLUW and you can listen to that here.

Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi + Riton) has released their new ep called Black Billionaires, and it features a dance floor ready track called “Do! Do! Do!” featuring Kid Sister.

Verma is the latest band to appear on Giant System. Verma will be performing with Moonrises and Killer Moon at Hideout on June 10th.

I can’t think of a better song to close out a relaxing Memorial Day than Joe Pug’s “Bury Me Far (from my uniform)”.

Joe will be returning to Chicago on July 1 through the 3rd for Fitzgerald’s American Music Festival.